honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, April 4, 2009

Gates to release defense budget overhaul

Photo gallery: Seth's Pix

Advertiser News Services

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Protesters demanding the government "bail out the people" and not big business gathered yesterday outside an AIG office building in New York. The rally against corporate bailouts passed two AIG buildings as it made its way through the Financial District.

JASON DECROW | Associated Press

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Robert Gates

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

John Demjanjuk

spacer spacer

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce his plans for a sweeping overhaul of the defense budget on Monday, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Gates will announce his decisions first in telephone calls to congressional leaders Monday morning and then in an afternoon news conference.

Gates has been working for weeks on an overhaul of the defense budget and has been contemplating tough decisions on whether to cancel the Air Force's F-22 fighter plane, Navy shipbuilding programs, the Army's Future Combat System and a host of other weapons programs.

In an unusual move for the Pentagon, Gates will announce his budget recommendations before shipping the formal recommendation to the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

SUSPECTED U.S. DRONE KILLS 13 IN PAKISTAN

ISLAMABAD — A suspected U.S. drone fired at least one missile at a home in northwest Pakistan today, killing 13 people, intelligence officials and a resident said.

The U.S. is suspected of carrying out more than three dozen such strikes in Pakistan near the Afghan border, where militants often launch attacks against U.S. and NATO troops.

The home targeted today was in North Waziristan, one of Pakistan's tribal areas believed to be an important base for al-Qaida and Taliban militants, the officials said. The dead and injured from the attack included women and children, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

U.S. FIRES ON REBEL SUNNI PARAMILITARIES

BAGHDAD — A U.S. aircraft fired on suspected government-allied Sunni paramilitaries planting a bomb, killing one and wounding two, the U.S. said yesterday — the latest sign of trouble in a program that has been a pillar of the American strategy to stabilize Iraq.

Iraq's prime minister said he was not ready to give up on the paramilitary program, known variously as Sons of Iraq and Awakening Councils, but warned he would not tolerate subversives in the ranks despite the groups' role in helping stabilize the country.

A U.S. statement said the airstrike was launched Thursday after four gunmen, allegedly members of the Sons of Iraq, were seen planting a roadside bomb near Taji, site of a large U.S. air base about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

MORE REMAINS IDENTIFIED IN N.M. DESERT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Police yesterday identified the remains of two more women among several bodies found in a desert mass grave west of Albuquerque.

Police Chief Ray Schultz said the bodies of Monica Candelaria and Veronica Romero, both of Albuquerque, were identified among the remains of 11 adult bodies and one fetus. Police previously had said they found 13 bodies.

Police had been excavating a 92-acre site since February, when a hiker discovered a human bone. They had said they believe the remains were buried by one person.

DEPORTATION OF SUSPECTED NAZI DELAYED

CLEVELAND — John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi death camp guard, marked his 89th birthday yesterday by winning a reprieve of his ordered deportation to Germany to face possible trial.

An immigration judge in Arlington, Va., issued the stay of a deportation expected during the weekend, said his son, John Demjanjuk Jr.

Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker who lives in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills, kept out of sight yesterday, as he has for years.

A German arrest warrant issued in March accuses the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk of 29,000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland during World War II.

EX-SAILOR TO SERVE 10 YEARS IN LEAK CASE

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Navy sailor convicted of leaking details about ship movements and the best ways to attack them was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison.

Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 33, of Phoenix, was convicted last year of disclosing classified national defense information.

Prosecutors labeled him a traitor who was trying to help foreign terrorists replicate the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. He was accused of leaking details of the ship movements to operators of a Web site in London that openly espoused jihad against the U.S.